Emergency co-producer Zee Entertainment claimed before the Bombay High Court on Thursday that the film’s release was being stalled by the Central Board of Film Certification to ensure that the Bharatiya Janata Party does not lose Sikh votes in the upcoming Haryana Assembly elections, reported Bar and Bench.
Emergency is a Hindi-language film based on the Emergency imposed by former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s government in 1975.
It stars actor-turned-politician Kangana Ranaut, who is a BJP MP from Himachal Pradesh’s Mandi. She is also the writer and director of the film, besides having co-produced it.
Zee Entertainment alleged that the film’s censor certification has been held up to delay its release, which was initially scheduled for September 6.
The company said that the movie was being seen as “anti-Sikh film” and that the BJP did not want to hurt the sentiments of Haryana’s sizeable Sikh population.
“The co-producer is a BJP MP and they do not want a film which hurts the sentiments of certain communities by a BJP member,” said Zee Entertainment’s lawyer, according to Bar and Bench.
The Central Board of Film Certification told the court that it had sent the movie to a review committee to consider objections by several parties, including Sikh groups, as per the direction of the Madhya Pradesh High Court.
The Bombay High Court directed the review committee to decide on the film’s certification by September 25. The Haryana Assembly polls will be held on October 5.
The now-disposed petitions against the release of the film in Madhya Pradesh were moved by two Sikh groups: Jabalpur Sikh Sangat and Guru Singh Sabha Indore. They alleged that the movie included scenes infringing on the fundamental rights of their community.
The petitioners also said that the film’s depiction of historical events and use of the term “Khalistan” could mislead and defame Sikhs. Khalistan refers to an independent nation for Sikhs that some members of the community seek to carve out of India.
“This is a movie and not a documentary,” the Bombay High Court remarked on Wednesday. “Do you think that the public is so naive that they will believe everything that they see in a movie. What about about creative freedom? It is not for the CBFC to decide whether this affects public order. This has stop otherwise we are completely curtailing the creative freedom.”
This came a day after BJP leader and former Union minister Som Prakash publicly warned Ranaut against making “unnecessary comments” about Sikh militant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, which he said could hurt the community’s feelings.
Bhindranwale had been a staunch critic of the Emergency. He was killed in Operation Blue Star, an Army operation carried out in June 1984 to remove him and other armed militants from the Golden Temple in Amritsar, Punjab.
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